KonoHana Stories
by JuliaJuliaJulia
Summary: Some Konohamaru-Hanabi one shots for this very underrated pairing
1. Chapter 1

1\. Spark

"Would you put some clothes on?" Hanabi threw Konohamaru's shirt from the previous night at his head.

"Ow, take it easy would you? What, do you never get hangovers or something?" Konohamaru rubbed his pounding head as he stumbled out of his bedroom, trying to remember the night before. It was all clear in his head up to the point the mess with Shino's insects was cleared up. He thought he remembered offering to walk Hanabi home? How they ended up here he had no idea. He'd been on duty so much recently he'd forgotten what it was like to kick back and relax; clearly he'd taken it a step too far last night.

Hanabi was sat at his kitchen counter nursing a mug of coffee. She handed him his own as he chucked the shirt on, and he immediately reached for the aspirin. She chuckled, "I guess we went a little overboard last night huh?" Her soft, sympathetic smile made his heart jump a little bit; he was so used to the tough, playful Hanabi that this almost caught him off-guard.

"Yeah you don't say..." he said, thinking of their current predicament. They looked at each other awkwardly. He decided to just come out with it; being tactful was never really hid forte. "Do we talk about last night? Us? Any of it?" he asked, letting Hanabi take the reins on this.

She just laughed. "We're not kids anymore, Konohamaru. You can say the word, we had sex." Her hand grazed his as she leaned across to grab a spoon. His mind was immediately taken back to last night, the feeling of her soft skin against his. He snapped back to attention when she started talking again. "And although it was very nice, we won't be doing that again."

"Nice?" Konohamaru said incredulously. "It was just _nice_? Were we in different rooms? Because I was killing in there from what I remember." Hanabi rolled her eyes as she sipped her coffee.

"It was great, okay? You killed it," she appeased, earning a grin from Konohamaru, "but we can't let that happen again. We're too close; we're friends, colleagues, hell we're almost family. We can't let that become awkward, we have to just be as... normal as possible. Think you can manage that?" she asked reluctantly. She knew what she wanted but she was also smart enough to know what was right.

"Yeah, absolutely, you read my mind." He'd been setting himself up for disappointment since she started talking. When he looked at her face he suddenly thought there was nothing more beautiful, and he'd been blind not to see it before. Why had he never noticed her this way before? But she was right, there was too much danger in this continuing so things had to be normal between them. It was just up to Konohamaru to now figure out how to go back to normal.

* * *

A whole week went by; the two met as normal, talked as normal and interacted as normal so no one would suspect a thing. All would have been fine; except the whole week Konohamaru couldn't stop thinking about Hanabi. Every time she laughed it sounded more beautiful in his head; every time she told a joke or shared some advice he found himself in awe of her humour and intellect. What was happening to him? Finally, he decided to pick up the phone on Friday night.

Hanabi sat with her phone in her hand debating whether to call or not. She had once made so much fun of her sister for agonising over love, but now she realised how complicated it all was. Why couldn't she get him out of her head? If he was able to act normal so easily, why couldn't she? Why did she catch herself daydreaming about the smallest things; his eyes or his hands, or even just the way he said her name? She groaned in frustration. Of course this was all stupid. They were never going to be together, she knew that. But would it hurt to call him over tonight?

She jumped as her phone rang. She didn't even have time to read the full name; she just picked up as soon as she saw the 'K'. "Hello?"

"Hey, Hanabi, it's me. Listen, I know we said we were going to put all that stuff from last week behind us but-"

"Can I come over tonight?" she blurted out, instantly cringing over her eagerness that she just couldn't hide.

There was an audible sigh on the other end of the line. "See you in twenty? I need to tidy up a bit."

Her mouth curled into a smile. "Absolutely. And Konohamaru?"

"Yeah?"

"You better be killing it again tonight." They both smiled at that.

"Roger that."


	2. Chapter 2

2: Sacrifices

Konohamaru strode proudly towards the gates of Konoha sporting his new facial hair. Hanabi had been on a mission for the past two weeks, in which time he'd been completing the even more important task of growing his first proper beard. As he went to meet her, he saw a familiar face walking back from the Hokage tower.

"Shikamaru! How's it going?" He called out across the street. Shikamaru looked up wearily from the ground and smirked when he saw him.

"Konohamaru is that you? Wow, you look... different." Shikamaru had to try his best to hold in his laugh; the chinstrap beard he'd grown didn't suit him at all. It framed his face in a way that somehow made it look rounder and younger, and there were patches where it hadn't quite grown in properly. "You trying something new?" he said, gesturing to the shambles growing on Konohamaru's jawline.

"Oh, yeah, do you like it? I look just like Uncle Asuma right?" Konohamaru boasted, beaming with pride.

That forced Shikamaru to chuckle; it reminded him of his attempts to grow a beard like Asuma's back when he was 18. "You might want to keep trying, kid." A sudden thought hit Shikamaru from the back of his mind; he remembered Ino saying something about Konohamaru and Hanabi Hyuga. "You wouldn't by any chance be trying this out to impress Hanabi, would you?" Shikamaru said slyly.

Konohamaru was immediately flustered; Hanabi and he had been trying their best to keep their relationship under wraps, but if Shikamaru knew... "No! Wh-what would make you say that?" Konohamaru deflected quickly.

Shikamaru simply gave him a knowing chuckle. "Well, take it from me; beards don't generally go down well with women. I almost slept on the couch for a whole week before Temari was okay with mine. Anyway, see you Konohamaru." He patted Konohamaru's shoulder as he walked past and continued onto his day.

Filled with worry, Konohamaru started walking to the gate again. _What if she doesn't like it? What if she breaks up with me because of it?_ He kept looping through his spiral of negative thoughts until he caught a glimpse of himself in a shop window. He looked at himself and he knew; he looked good. He wasn't going to let Shikamaru get him down today. He straightened himself up and continued his usual confident walk towards the gates.

* * *

She saw the gates coming up in the distance and sighed. It had been a long two weeks and she was ready to crash. She saw Konohamaru standing near Izumo and Kotetsu's stand and immediately smiled. She knew how cheesy it was but just seeing him made her feel at ease. As she got closer, she realised there was something around his face; something which hadn't been there before. She frowned as she came up to meet him.

"What in God's name is that?" she raised an eyebrow at him and pointed towards his scraggly beard.

He smiled as he stuck out his chin for her to see. "Do you like it? Gives me an aura of sophistication doesn't it?" he said placing two fingers on his beard as if in thought.

She knew she could shoot him down. It would be her natural instinct to tell him how stupid he looked and that the beard needed to go. But whether it was the exhaustion or whether she was just feeling nice today, she decided to let it go. She just smiled at him and ran a hand over the beard. "You know what? It could be worse."

"What?! It couldn't be better!"

* * *

They finally reached Hanabi's house at the edge of the Hyuga compound and settled down her things. She liked the extra privacy she got here, despite still being very much connected to her clan. She loved her father but she didn't want her entire life out on the table for him to see; especially her new situation with Konohamaru was something she'd rather keep private for now. She had decorated it herself, chosen her own soft yellow, white and lavender colour scheme and furnished it with the essentials she really was proud of her own little home. She had finished filling him in on the all the details of her mission, and of how her two teammates had interrogated her on the way back.

"Yeah, seems it's becoming less of a secret now, huh?" Konohamaru said, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "Even Shikamaru mentioned something about it."

"Ah well. We'll see what happens, I guess." She slid into Konohamaru's arms and wrapped hers around his waist as he hugged her tightly. She pulled back to look at his face again.

"You really don't like the beard?" he said, somewhat softly, almost disappointed.

She smiled. "No, I can get on board with it." She leaned into him and lightly kissed him. He moved his hand up to hold her face as he kissed her more deeply before she pulled away suddenly. She just shook her head. The bristles of his beard felt too much like a toilet brush and she was no longer feeling benevolent.

"What is it?"

"Nope, the beard's gonna have to go."


End file.
